Understanding myself; evolving from information to wisdom. Like many Christians, I struggle with obedience. I have gotten to a place where I don’t struggle with the big decisions, but I struggle with the everyday reactions to meaningless situations. I become emotionally highjacked by simple events. Things that I can stand back and say to myself, this is meaningless; it has no bearing on my life or my salvation; it’s just wrong; the wrongness is a value judgment on my behalf.
I go back to Paul’s passage in Romans 7:15-20, one of the most grammatically challenging passages in the Bible, but its message is something we all can relate to.
Paul says, “I do not understand myself. I want to do what is right, but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. When I do the thing I do not want to do, it shows me that the Law is right and good. So, I am not doing it. Sin living in me is doing it. I know there is nothing good in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do good but I do not. I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I am always doing the sinful things I do not want to do. If I am always doing the very thing I do not want to do, it means I am no longer the one who does it. It is a sin that lives in me.”
Struggling with Repetitive Sin
We all struggle with sin. It is inherent within us to stray from God. The lure of the world is ever-present. That lure is not always selfish in origin; sometimes, it disguises itself as righteous indignation. We internalize our behavior as a way of making it more palatable. Sin finds a way of making us think that being right is better than doing right. Once being right is more important, we fail. We fail repeatedly, always wanting to improve but never quite getting there.
1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The genesis of this thinking comes from a new project a friend and I are undertaking. As we grow older and watch our parents grow older, we want to avoid the pitfalls of aging. I don’t want to become that grumpy older man that people avoid. I want to be light in the darkness. As the saying goes, growing old is not for sissies. As we age past sixty, we realize we are slowly losing control of our everyday life. This loss of control can be frustrating.
So, my friend and I came up with a list of attributes that older people need to become aware of as they age. This list isn’t about how to live healthier or happier; it is about how to interact more positively with younger people who may not realize what you are going through. We then applied Biblical teaching to each attribute. This project was a self-improvement project, not an educational project aimed at others.
Understanding: Converting Information to Knowledge
Proverbs 17:27 – “The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.”
The problem that came to light is that even knowing the issues, I still fall short. I struggle to convert information into knowledge, expecting it to become wisdom someday. I live my life like it is just information. Converting information to knowledge requires contextualization, evaluation, application, and reflection. We can not accomplish this in the rearview mirror; it must be forward-thinking.
I do not know myself; I don’t want to move my sin underground away from prying eyes, thinking sinful thoughts while responding with “Bless you.” I want to turn away from sin altogether. Paul and I have a common problem. We know what to do; we don’t always do it.
The first step is engaging actively with Biblical concepts through discussions, teaching, or hands-on practice. Converting information to knowledge is active, not passive. Knowing something doesn’t mean you understand it and can apply it. In my case, I need to put our list of attributes into action and reinforce that action with discussions and introspection. We can not accomplish this in a vacuum.
Understanding: Converting Knowledge to Wisdom
Ecclesiastes 7:19 – “Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city.”
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”- Charles Spurgeon.
It gets trickier to change knowledge into wisdom. Wisdom requires time and experience. Wisdom comes from the repetitive practice of trial and error. It is about getting knocked down and getting back up repeatedly. We need to use each opportunity to teach us something new. You start to get a deeper understanding and recognize patterns. There becomes this interconnectedness between the existing state and the desired state of our being. We develop more empathy and emotional intelligence, not just for our being but the being of others. We can’t change others without first changing ourselves.
Final Thought
Paul was more extraordinary than I could ever hope to be, and he still struggled. I can not expect to experience anything different. What Paul did was constantly push back against worldly traits. He never conquered his sin, but he didn’t give in either. He battled it every day. I can not ask myself anything more than that.
James 3:17 – “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”